the_west_marchesfandomcom-20200214-history
Killing an Archfey
To the Sound of Trumpets The party consisting of Ayre, Eris, Greg, Joy, Kara, and Lazarus decided to take on the greatest threat to Krakenfall that we know of. They set out on a long journey to rid the island of the archfey who has been gathering his strength for the past few months. They summoned Eli and Susana, the Guardian, and briefly discussed their plans to take apart the archfey's defences. Eli decided to accompany them, while Susana would join them later for the final battle.(edited) Their first step would be to divert a large number of devils in order to traverse the forest with less difficulty. After a decent amount of examination of the contract that was to be signed, Ayre used Kara's book to contact the narzugon and request a meeting south of the portal to the hells. In that meeting, Joy convinced the narzugon that a different, stronger party of adventurers from the mainland were soon to attack the forest from the eastern side, planning to kill the archfey. As per their contract, the devils were obliged to investigate the possibility, withdrawing part of their forces from the vicinity of the fey base. The party also learned of Joy's father, Pride, who has apparently been under the service of the narzugon.(edited) The next phase of the plan was to disable to vile curse that a coven of hags had placed on the forest. It emanated an aura of hopelessness and allowed them to sense the presence of anyone under its influence. The party made their way to the village of the friendly witches through the recently established portal and inquired with them as to the location of the hags. They were pointed to the northeast, and headed in that direction. When they entered the forest, they had to get out and back in until, with the help of Joy's countercharm, each of them was able to resist the effects of the depression magic. On the way to the hags, they had to avoid a number of fey patrols and came across one of the riddle statues they were informed of. They handily solved a puzzle that was given to them, but failed to answer the question that came after. The statue began to give off a loud sound, which alerted nearby fey to their presence. They destroyed part of the statue and ran away into the darkness to avoid them. After a few minutes of running, they escaped and quietly continued on their path.(edited) They eventually found the source of the foul magic. A contraption that seemed to feed off the souls of people who died in great despair, and amplify the sensation to cause the curse that had been troubling travellers for the past few weeks. Joy decided to sneak ahead to get a closer look, but was discovered by a particularly perceptive tree. The rest of the party rushed to her aid and battle ensued. While the three night hags had an array of powerful destructive spells at their disposal, and several party members were knocked unconscious, their combined hardiness mixed with Ayre's healing spells allowed them to weather the storm. The devils and enhanced satyrs that were present were all annihilated, but the hags were able to teleport away just in time to avoid death. The party then destroyed the contraption that held the spell in place, freeing the forest of its effects The Lightest Dress Our party had decided to not go after the unkillable abomination for now, and instead focus in taking down Vealdeer himself. With the destruction of the projection tower that held the forest under its curse, the party knew that they would have to sneak straight through enemy patrols to the north in order to reach the wizard who holds up the mythal-like barrier around the fey base of operations. With those of them who are unable to see in the dark lead by the others, they began to make their way past many satyrs and blink dogs. Unfortunately, Eris was discovered. After an attempt to quietly eliminate the enemies who had seen him, the situation only escalated. Ayre and Kara created a sphere of silence and darkness, which spelled a horrifying death to many a satyr. Eli succeeded in drawing the attention of most of them before escaping as an owl, but several party members were still far enough behind to be spotted once again. With a few well-placed spells, and pure martial might, our adventurers held their own against the fey for some time, but reinforcements were on the way from all directions. Thankfully, the Guardian arrived and held off the rest of them while the party made their escape north. They got separated in the ensuing chase, but were able to track each other well enough to meet up afterwards. Eli turned out to have lost an eye in the fighting. During their short rest, the Guardian re-joined the group and used some powerful magic to restore his eye, but requested that he stay out of the fighting for the near future. The party continued on their way and came upon what seemed to be some kind of old Gith tavern. After solving a simple puzzle to gain entry, they found a number of unconscious Githyanki inside. Seeing them, Kara had a flashback that returned to her some long forgotten memories of her past life in the astral plane A Dish Best Served Cold The party of six came across one Githyanki who was awake. They engaged him in cautious conversation, and discovered that Kara used to be some kind of "eternal flaming psychopath" and part of the Githzerai army, the sworn enemies of the Githyanki. Before she had lost her memories, Kara had been known as one of the most ruthless killers of Githyanki on the Astral Plane. After it became obvious that the Gith would not be friendly, the party decided to trust Kara and take her advice to kill them all before the rest got a chance to wake up. They moved from room to room, getting rid of all the githyanki, but being unable to find anything of substantial use.(edited) After that, they continued on their way towards where they knew the wizard they were after was staying. They camped for the night a few hours away, and were awakened by the same trio of night hags that they had defeated just a few days before. Thanks to Joy's magical scimitar, the party were all awakened as soon as the hags attacked, and were able to promptly fight back. Unfortunately, Joy took one lightning bolt too many and died in the fighting. Ayre was thankfully able to revive her, and two of the hags were killed before the third escaped.(edited) After concluding their rest a little further away, the party continued towards the wizard's camp. A few of them recognized Valvere, previously an adventurer in Krakenfall, who had betrayed them some time ago. She was changed by some elemental ice magic and seemed to be the one holding up the protective barrier around the archfey's base. She was surrounded by a large number of altered satyrs and a couple of merregons, along with the one surviving night hag. Ayre attempted to reason with Valvere and give her a chance at redemption, but she seemed entirely unwilling. A large battle followed, during which Greg died to a summoned elemental. Ayre was there to resurrect him as well, and the final night hag was also killed before she got a chance to teleport away. The battle ended with Eris plunging his dagger into Valvere, and reclaiming the third Shard of Naz which she had stolen. Revenge of the Gith Eli re-joined the party of adventurers, and together they headed towards the last known location of the archfey Vealdeer. They encountered him relatively soon. After a few minutes of little more than idle chatter, he disappeared leaving behind an item that could help the players follow him. They did so, and ended up in a force cage, surrounded by illusory clones of Vealdeer. They wondered how this could happen, since they thought themselves above such mistakes. He offered the party a chance to join him peacefully, but everyone seemed to decline for a multitude of reasons. Everyone but Joy, since it was revealed that she had switched sides to serve the archfey. Kara was understandably heartbroken, and swore revenge. When it became obvious that no more of the adventurers would turn, Veadeer transported them all to the location in which the final battle would begin.(edited) Multiple helmed horrors, giant eagles, hell hounds, and even a hag were there to face them, but there was also a resurrected Asakar, who was very eager to get his vengeance on Kara. Shorty after the battle began, the archfey took them with him to what seemed to be the Modron home world. They were greeted by many smaller Modrons as well as another instance of The Bureaucratic Process™. In the midst of the fight, Joy snapped out of what was revealed to be a charm set upon her by the archfey. She fought on the party's side again from then on, much to their relief. Eris was also killed, but was quickly brought back to life by Ayre. When most of the modrons were eliminated, they party were all transported to the elemental plane of air, in which Asakar caught up with them through his own planar magic. He tried to engage Kara to exact his revenge, but was promptly pushed off a floating isle of rock by Lazarus, which took him out of the equation for some time. After some more fighting, they went to the plane of fire, in several small islands surrounded by lava. Lazarus saw a good opportunity to deal a strong blow against Veadeer, who instructed him not to attempt the manoeuvre, considering that his isle was slightly raised in comparison to Lazarus. But Lazarus thought his capabilities were being underestimated, and so he hopped over and pushed Vealdeer into the lava. He ended up paying for it with his life though, as a very angry archfey killed him instantly in response. Things took a turn for the worse again as Ayre, trying to reach Lazarus' body, also fell unconscious. However, Kara was there to save the day with some divine healing.(edited) Shortly afterwards, they were brought back to the air plane, where Lazarus was resurrected and pushed Asakar off once again, much to his annoyance. The archfey used some of his last remaining strong spells, but the party clung onto existence, with a lot of effort. Exhausted, Vealdeer decided to transport them all back to the original battlefield, hoping for his forces to finish them off. However, they returned to find the Guardian, transformed into a huge red dragon, tearing apart what was left of the fey and devils that were seen previously. Susanna joined the fray, killing Asakar somewhere down the line. Now seeing that he no longer had any semblance of an upper hand, Vealdeer decided to flee.(edited) He opened a portal through which he summoned the narzugon and ordered him to deal with the adventurers. However, the narzugon prevented him from using that same portal to escape. With one final arrow from Eris, the archfey was vanquished. With the contract between him and the devils broken, his soul was damned to the hells for eternity. The narzugon turned out to be Joy's long-lost father Pride, corrupted by evil forces. He also died shortly after, due to his part in the archfey's death. With the forest finally free, Susanna thanked the party, and gave them directions to Vealdeer's old camp, in which they found glorious amounts of loot to share amongst themselves.